For decades, Dr. Farr Nezhat has been committed to treating uterine cancer using safe and effective minimally invasive surgical techniques. In the process, he has established himself as a leading voice on the subject. Why settle for suboptimal treatment when you can move forward with the best uterine cancer specialist in the world?
What is uterine cancer?
Cancer that originates in the uterine lining (endometrium) is referred to as carcinoma. Cancer of the uterine muscle is referred to as sarcoma. Sarcomas are rare, much less common than carcinomas, representing 8% of uterine cancers.
Uterine cancer is the most common gynecologic malignancy in the U.S. It is expected there will be 63,000 new cases per year.
The chance of being diagnosed with endometrial cancer increases with age. More then half of women with endometrial cancer are diagnosed after age 55.
What are the symptoms of endometrial cancer?
- Postmenopausal bleeding (spotting or heavy)
- Irregular or heavy menses
- Pelvic pain
- Bloating
- Cramping
- Postmenopausal abnormal vaginal discharge
What are the risk factors for endometrial cancer?
The cause of uterine cancer is not known and there is no way to predict who will get it, but there are certain factors which make a woman more likely to develop it.
- Women between the ages of 50 and 70 are at increased risk
- Being overweight or obese
- Unopposed estrogen therapy (taking estrogen without balancing it with progesterone)
- Taking tamoxifen (non-hormonal medication used to treat breast cancer)
- Complex atypical hyperplasia (abnormal tissue in the uterus which may develop into cancer)
- Beginning menstruation early, before age 12 (this increases lifetime exposure to estrogen)
- Undergoing menopause after age 50
- History of infertility
- Having infrequent periods
- Having never been pregnant
- Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS)
- Diabetes
- Hypertension
- Having colon cancer before age 50
- Inheriting a gene at birth that increases risk (such as Lynch II syndrome, known as non-polyposis colorectal cancer, or HNPCC)
What treatment options does Dr. Nezhat offer for uterine cancer?
Dr. Nezhat specializes in the application of minimally invasive surgical techniques to treat uterine cancer. He performs all the standard procedures historically performed via open surgery, but he does so through small incisions.
These procedures include hysterectomy, removal of fallopian tubes and possibly ovaries, lymph node dissection, omentectomy (removal of fatty tissue attached to the stomach and colon), pelvic washing (irrigation of the pelvic cavity to wash away cancerous cells), tumor debulking, and collection of biopsies (called staging).
Sometimes open surgery is required, but the ultimate goal is to utilize the smallest incisions to remove all visible signs of disease and optimize outcome.
Dr. Nezhat has published extensively on the utility, safety and efficacy of minimally invasive surgery for gynecological malignancies.
A listing of over 226 of Dr. Nezhat’s research articles can be found at the PubMed search engine, which pulls references and abstracts from the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM) database maintained at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).